FAMILY PEDIGREES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22067, 25 September 1933, Page 10

FAMILY PEDIGREES

ENGLISH PEER'S ATTACK CONTROVERSY AROUSED. I LONDON, September 8. An attack made by Lord Raglan at the British Association's conference at Leicester on the authenticity of family pedigrees is likely to arouse a big controversy, says the Daily Mail. "Lord Raglan's statement was far too sweeping," declared the secretary of the College of Arms. "There are no doubt certain bogus pedigrees, but several British families have pedigrees whieh undoubtedly are authentic, and go back to the eleventh (Norman) century." An official of the Genealogists' Society, on the other hand, whole-heartedly agreed with Lord Raglan. "We are constantly correcting mistakes made by the old genealogists," he said. " Surnames did not come into general use until after the conquest, for which reason Norman descent cannot definitely be proved."

Lord Raglan's own barony dates back to 1852, and was first held by a wellknown field-marshal, who commanded the British Army in the Crimean campaign. The first Lord Raglan, however, was the youngest son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort, descendant of a titled family dating back to 1305. There was a Baron Herbert of Raglan in 1509. The oldest title in the present House of Lords is that of Baron Mowbray (1282). The barony of Hastings was founded in 1290, and that of de Clifford in 1299. There are no other peerages (within the House of Lords, at all events) dated back beyond the year 1300.